As usual, the latest Viridian Note by Bruce Sterling is worth a read. It’s mainly about a piece by Al Gore published in Salon. One very funny, but sadly necessary, link in the Note is to this article in the New Yorker, which mocks the moronic Intelligent Design hokum that is so popular in America.
Month: November 2005
Simon Singh’s Site
For readers from the reality-based community, SimonSingh.net is a pretty interesting place full of fun bits of science- and math-reporting.
Her Japanese Nurse Friend’s Favorite “Character”
Yes, my girlfriend actually has a friend who is a Japanese nurse. (Get your minds out of the gutter, all you naughty people.) The real question that came to my mind is this: what the heck is a “Miffy”? Calls out from the wilderness to Google, the Keeper of All Knowledge. Oh, that. Okay. Pan-Asian Cartoony cutesy character thingamadoodle. That was what I thought when I googled Miffy. That gave me pause. Why are these things so popular in Asia? I can understand a cultural difference in which people came to like “cute” things much more unabashedly here — I …
뒤섞여 있음의 기쁨: Yes, I’m Published in Korean
What does that mean? I’m not quite sure, but Lime said it was something like what I took to mean “Joyful Melding” or something like that. It’s the title that was given to the translation of the article I wrote in English about the Jeonju Sori Festival, which was published in this month’s 문화저저늘 (Culture Journal). Since I didn’t title it myself, the title can only be credited to the translator… Lime says the writing as rendered in Korean is absolutely beautiful, and of course I’m not sure whether that means my writing is good, or whether to credit only …
OhmyNews International
While I still don’t have a lot of sympathy for those caught for teaching in Korea illegally, OhMyNew International’s carrying a story called Prison Diary of an English Teacher which at least has me thinking that the way people are handled after being caught leaves much to be desired. But of course, it’s not the first time a ridiculous incarceration has happened in Korea — see the section of the documentary “If You Were Me” dealing with the story of Chandra Gurung, a Nepalese woman who spent over half a decade in a mental institution in South Korea because (a) …